Preserving Fresh Eggs

By Kellene, Preparedness Pro on 18 May 2009 - 10:58am

As I’ve been writing and researching recipes for my Emergency Preparedness cookbook, I’ve had an aversion to using any of my recipes which include eggs except for baking recipes. While you can use the old egg-substitute concoction of gelatin*, or dry packed eggs, these alternatives are really only good for baking. Dog gone it. I KNOW that I’m going to crave real eggs in the midst of a crisis. So I wanted to figure out a way to preserve fresh eggs for me and my family.

(*Note: Egg substitute for use in baking—Before starting a recipe for cookies, cake, etc, combine 1 tsp. of unflavored gelatin with 3 tbsp. of cold water and 2 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. of boiling water. This mixture will substitute for 1 egg in a baking recipe.)

Raising Chickens for Eggs

Recently I noticed a solid movement of urban communities demanding that their city allow them to raise chickens on their lot for the purpose of having access to fresh eggs. In fact there’s even an organization formed online that is booming with hundreds of thousands of members specifically to promote this cause. Personally, I think that a city that would discourage independence of its citizens by forbidding a couple of backyard chickens is an enemy of freedom, but that’s just me. However, recently a neighboring town just approved a few backyard chickens for residences, and my city is pushing for the same. So I have hope that I will be raising a couple of chickens in my backyard soon. (I never would have even entertained such a thought a few years ago. I’m a far cry from a farmer or even a tomboy. It’s obvious that I have come a long way in my journey of embracing of the idea that I really DO need to be prepared and as independent as possible. So there’s hope for the rest of you. *wink*) OK. So if I can raise the chicken, what good is it if I can’t consume the eggs everyday? At some point I’ve got to find a way to preserve the eggs without poisoning my family, right? I’m quite certain that families in “the olden days” had ways of doing so. So off I went on a mission to discover exactly how this was done. I’m excited with the information I found and thought I’d pass it on to you.

Here are the basics of preserving eggs:

Be sure to use only fresh eggs. If any decomposition occurs, you will be unsuccessful. Also exposure to extreme heat or cold will hinder your preservation process.

You can use an oil as well, but the oil can go rancid… not exactly what I would want on my eggs.

Store the eggs in a finely ground preservative such as salt, bran, or an equal mix of finely ground charcoal and dry bran or finely ground oats. You can also store them in finely ground plaster of Paris, but that’s not exactly something that I plan on having on hand regularly. You can store the eggs layer upon layer, so long as you they don’t touch each other, metal, or wood. Be sure you have enough finely ground preservative to pack them in. (You can feed the salt and bran to the cattle afterwards.)

Store the eggs small side down.

Store the eggs in a covered container and keep in a cool, dry place. You don’t want to store them in freezing temperatures.

Eggs will keep “fresh” for up to 9 months. In fact, some countries are known to have stored their eggs like this for up to 2 years.

I’ve also read of preserving eggs by placing them in boiling water for 5 to 20 seconds. I don’t recommend this way as even though they will keep, the texture of the egg is altered a bit from what I want to see when I fry an egg. And even then they subsequently need to be stored in the salt, etc. So I see no reason for this particular extra step that would alter the texture. I’m so relieved knowing that this “foodie” doesn’t have to go without her fresh eggs even in a time of crisis now! Yippee!

Comments

I used that site to check my local laws, which apparently have changed recently. Now Houstonians need to get a note from their doctor to have chickens:

"written certification from a licensed physician that in the opinion of such physician the applicant has need of fresh unfertilized chicken eggs for serious reasons pertaining to said person's health."

Kellene,
What a treat to find your site! Thanks for stopping by mine so I could find you. I never knew about this way to preserve eggs... fascinating and useful, thanks! No matter how you save or preserve them (or don't in my case but still wait a long while before using them), here's a trick for testing eggs before use to make sure they are not "bad." Put the egg or eggs in a pan of cool water. Any eggs that pop to the top are bad - remember, the gas of spoiled eggs is what makes them rise in the water. The good eggs will stay flat in the bottom. Any eggs that raise part way up, I tend to feed those to the dogs...
Best,
Gin

Wow! This information, and the information in the comments about testing eggs to see if they are still good, are going in my emergency notebook so that in the event that I can use it, I will have it. Thanks for finding the info and then sharing it!

(I personally LOVE the Mother Earth News.)Here's something interesting. In Swizterland, they did a farming study in which some farmers were keeping eggs for TWO years! (I'm still scratching my head wondering why it took them so long to eat their eggs, and I'm hoping that they didn't try to sell them after a long storage time.)

Yes, you can do that just fine. Here's why I don't though. A)too much more time and energy required. B) Cheese wax is much more expensive C) I use the eggs much more often than the cheese thus removing the wax from teh eggs is more arduous. D) Removing the wax from the eggs and then recycling it for more is very challenging.
By the way, the only reason why I know all of this is because I once had an "idea" much like yours. *wink*

1. What do you think of coating the eggs with Vaseline? (I read that somewhere.)
2. I can see how a lubricant covering would block air from entering the eggs. How does placing the eggs in salt or bran, etc. block the air?
Thanks Kellen. (All)Your posts are spot on!

Yes, you can use vaseline. I tried that method as well. It works fine. Again though, I find the mineral oil easier to slather on the egg, less mess when I use the egg and less mess when I store them.
The bran gives them a cool air flow and mimicks hay as well--the method that folks used to use when storing eggs long term to keep them cool. Vaseline and bran don't mix so well if you're planning on using the bran.
If you read my 10 Things I Wish I had Known, you'll see that I've come to "see the light" when it comes to using the mineral oil. I use that almost exclusively now.

Mum mentioned to me the other day they used to preserve their eggs using water glass (sodium silicate). And this was only in the last 40-50 years. I have no idea if it's still available but it's interesting to think how quickly things change - this was common practice a generation or two ago & now is almost unheard of.

I have successfully preserved my home grown eggs in waterglass for many years now.. They last well over a year. I use a crock with a 10% waterglass/water ratio. Do not prewash the eggs, but place perfectly clean gently wiped eggs in the solution. Keep the crock in a cool dark location. I use my basement. Just take the number of eggs out that you need, give a quick rinse and they're ready to use!

Don't stack the cheese on each other. Let the air circulate around it. One of the two ways I store my cheese is to criss-cross stack it in a bucket. I do not put the lid on the bucket. The most common way I do it though is to wrap it in cheese cloth and hang it from the ceiling.
Here's the article that talks about the egg preservation. http://preparednesspro.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/10-things-i-wish-i-had-k...

I thought I saw somewhere that you indicated your could easily preserve eggs coated in mineral oil in their styrofoam or cardboard containers. However, I can't find the article - help!
Thanks so much for your wonderful site. Also, If I wax cheese, can I alternately layer them in an open 5 gallon bucket and store them in my basement safely? Do I need to flip them over or keep them from touching like with parchment or something? Would love to see a photo of how you store your waxed cheese. :)

Hi,
This is such great information from everybody. We have been keeping chickens for 2 years now. When we have too many eggs, we sell them at church. But we will be getting more chickens and I want to make sure our family is covered first before selling them. It is great to see the different personalities of the different breeds of chickens. They are a lot of fun!

Love all your info and your perspective on being prepared. I agree 100%! Wondering if I try this way to preserve fresh eggs with salt, if I could reuse the salt over and over again? I don't see why not.... But I'm no expert. Thanks!

Yes, you most certainly CAN use this method on eggs which have already been refrigerated. Stick with what I specifically write and you'll be fine. I'd have to eliminate half of the comments if I deleted every one of them that was mistaken. However, you should know that I only use Waterglass/sodium silicate now instead of mineral oil because it's not a petroleum product.
The time to put the mineral oil on the eggs is when you first purchase them and the whole reason to preserve the eggs NOW is so that you don't have to take up refrigerator space.

Okay, I've read through the article and the comments, but I'm still unsure of something. Can I buy eggs that have been refrigerated at the grocery store and then use the mineral oil for long term storage? One comment said no, can't shelf-store an egg once it has been in a refrigerator, but another post discussed buying eggs for sale at walmart and doing this, and I know they will be stored in the frig at wallyworld. I have my mineral oil and have room in my frig for six dozen eggs, so I was planning on just keeping them there and then if the power goes out, put the mineral oil on and store them. Will this work?

Ashes is one of the many ways that folks used to store eggs, however, they won't store as long though. Sawdust is another way as well. These are both alternatives to mineral oil. I find that the oil is the method that is easiest and more realistic for me to use, though nowadays I use jojoba oil instead of mineral for health purposes.

Read that eggs that you buy in the groceries refrigerated section have already been washed. With that, the original nature-made protective coating is lost. That's why it's best to get eggs before they ever get refrigerated. Then I suppose storing them in salt is probably best. That coating is like a water-proofing, so I bet oiling them is unnecessary.

3 reasons why I'm not sure if you read the article...
1) nowhere do we mention keeping the bloom ON the eggs. Yes, they have been washed an refrigerated at the store, but I don't' suggest anything on here that I haven't already tried or have been doing for a long time.
2) Even fresh eggs that I purchase have the bloom washed off. The bloom naturally expires after about 10 days anyway, so when you're talking about keeping eggs for 9 months, the bloom is irrelevant.
3) "Storing them in salt" is NOT the best. The measures I've suggested are the most tried and true methods, many of which are STILL in practice in 1st world nations that don't have a government that puts its nose into matters that they have no business or authorization to do, and definitely are those which have been practiced for centuries.

3 reasons why I'm not sure if you read the article...
1) nowhere do we mention keeping the bloom ON the eggs. Yes, they have been washed an refrigerated at the store, but I don't' suggest anything on here that I haven't already tried or have been doing for a long time.
2) Even fresh eggs that I purchase have the bloom washed off. The bloom naturally expires after about 10 days anyway, so when you're talking about keeping eggs for 9 months, the bloom is irrelevant.
3) "Storing them in salt" is NOT the best. Oiling is best because only OIL can fill in all of the micro sized pores in the egg shell. Salt, of course cannot do that. The measures I've suggested are the most tried and true methods, many of which are STILL in practice in 1st world nations that don't have a government that puts its nose into matters that they have no business or authorization to do, and definitely are those which have been practiced for centuries.

1) nowhere do we mention keeping the bloom ON the eggs. Yes, they have been washed an refrigerated at the store, but I don't' suggest anything on here that I haven't already tried or have been doing for a long time.

2) Even fresh eggs that I purchase have the bloom washed off. The bloom naturally expires after about 10 days anyway, so when you're talking about keeping eggs for 9 months, the bloom is irrelevant.

3) "Storing them in salt" is NOT the best. Oiling is best because only OIL can fill in all of the micro sized pores in the egg shell. Salt, of course cannot do that. The measures I've suggested are the most tried and true methods, many of which are STILL in practice in 1st world nations that don't have a government that puts its nose into matters that they have no business or authorization to do, and definitely are those which have been practiced for centuries.

I just found you site, LOVE it! I am just confused, have searched through these comments and the different posts, after all the years of preserving eggs, which is it that you would recommend today. I found different things you recommended on different years.
Sept 2009 Mineral Oil
Dec 2012 Sodium Silicate
Aug 2014 Coconut oil or Jojoba oil
Did you try the coconut oil? did you find it to work as well as other oils? And from this post I can not quite understand how exactly to store in salt or bran?
Thanks for any clarification you can give me! I really want to start this!

ALL choices are viable. I prefer sodium silicate or jojoba oil now as they've altered the chemical makeup of the mineral oil and the fact that I actually am better informed about the use of petroleum products which mineral oil is.

I am astonished that you need permission to keep a few chickens in the USA. In the UK you just go out and buy your chickens. The thought of asking a doctor for a chitty to authorize you to buy chickens is bizarre. What about civil liberties? I thought America was "The land of the free". Doesn't sound very free to me.

If I coat my fresh-laid eggs with mineral oil, won't it eventually "soak" in and make the eggs taste "oily" when I use them in recipes? I do not wash my eggs and have never had any rotten eggs. As far as some of the other methods, is the sodium silicate the same as the silica that can be used to dry flowers? I have lots of that. I'd rather use that than mineral oil if it would help preserve the eggs. Would coconut oil work as well as mineral oil? I know coconut oil is good for us, and I don't think it would taste bad if it soaked into the eggs.

No it doesn't make the eggs taste oily.
Yes, you can use coconut oil or sodium silicate.
No, sodium silicate is not quite the same as silica, but at least the SS isn't a petroleum product like the mineral oil.
You can also use Jojoba oil.

The article you have written is nice and informative. I have chickens and roosters, which I use for multi-purpose; I raise the roosters for meat, the chickens for eggs and for hatching the fertile eggs ( their viability goes down after the bloom wears off in about 10 days). I have used the preserving method at cool room temp. I didn't know others were also doing that. Other methods I think are great are to pickle them with chile; and lastly to cook the eggs, make burritos and freeze them. This saves a lot of cooking time in the long run.